It was 3:30 in the afternoon, with the game starting in 3 1/2 hours. Jean Segura was nowhere to be found in the Milwaukee Brewers clubhouse.

Other players sifted through messages on their phones or watched TV or worked on the computer, a little peace and sanctity before batting practice, meetings and the first pitch at Miller Park.

Four o'clock. Still no Segura. 4:25. Nope.

Word came back that Segura was in the weight room with none other than Ryan Braun.

Well, that explained everything.

He was going to be awhile.

If you want to know who Jean Segura is, then you have to start at home, in the Dominican Republic, where he trained for eight hours a day in hopes he could help his family through baseball.

If you want to know who Jean Segura wants to be, 23 now and his baseball future ahead, then you have to go back to spring training when he asked to be Braun's workout buddy.

"He came up to me and started asking a lot of questions," said Braun. "I think he has a desire to get better. I think he's done better than anybody could have possibly hoped; he's been amazing to this point. It's been a lot of fun for us to watch it and see it."

Segura is Milwaukee's promising young shortstop, aggressive at the plate and maybe even more so in the field. But he wasn't always so. Growing up in the San Juan province, he hopped a bus to a baseball training academy where Carlos Julio De La Rosa promised he would help Segura.

"Practice eight hours every day," said Segura. "To the field in the morning. After that, school for a little bit. Had to go to the gym after and do some exercise. God give me the opportunity to be professional baseball player and you know, this tough decision to make, but I just wanted to be successful to help my family be good. You know? And I think this is the only way that I can help them, quickly, you know?"

After playing in the Dominican Summer League, Segura left home for the United States at age 18 to play in the Angels' farm system.

"They always play hard," said Segura.

When Segura arrived he was understandably a little unsure of his new surroundings, said Ty Boykin, Segura's manager from the Arizona Angels in 2008. He wasn't as aggressive as the other Dominican players. He was a little quiet. He would have to change. Everything the Angels teach is aggressive.

"Even if you make a mistake, make it an aggressive mistake," said Boykin.

Segura took the coaching and became a hard-charging player until - playing second base then - he was steamrolled by a base runner and broke his leg. He was convinced his baseball career was over.

"You'll play," said Boykin. "Trust me."

Segura worked so hard on his rehabilitation that his speed came back even after the injury. He started climbing up in the minors.

Last year, when the Brewers traded Zack Greinke to the Angels, they got Segura in return as part of the deal. He spent just a week at Class AA Huntsville when the Brewers called him up on Aug. 6. He skipped Class AAA altogether.

Just as Kevin Young and Al Martin once mentored Aramis Ramirez, the third baseman decided to look out for Segura.

"He's got a lot of skills. But usually young guys make a lot of mistakes when they come up," said Ramirez. "As a veteran I try to help them as much as I can.

Segura has really exploded on to the scene. He is hitting .328, 12th in the majors as of Thursday afternoon, and playing well defensively at shortstop. No one seems prouder than Braun.

He has shared with Segura his formula for working out under what are already tough conditions: 162 games in 180 days. And long days at that.

"You don't want to get too sore, you don't want to get fatigued," said Braun. "You want to be able to maintain as much strength, athleticism and explosiveness as you can throughout the course of the season. He's been on my workout program from the beginning and he's committed to it; it's not easy. I've seen a difference in his first-step quickness and his overall athleticism."

The workouts are total body, with a ton of core, rather than a leg day or an upper-body day, and they are adjusted to guarantee no skipped workouts with the most demanding pro sports schedule.

"We don't want to have weeks where we're not able to accomplish something," said Braun.

Such purpose is rooted in Segura's background, since he is like many other Dominican players who send money home to the family.

"If a Dominican player has $100, he's going to send $50 of it home," said Boykin. "That's why Dominican players are such hard workers. That's their first priority. They saw what their parents went through."

Segura's father, Carlos, used to work in a bank. His mother, Maribel, cooks and then sells the food. He has a younger brother, Jeffry, and a younger sister, Jessica. Baseball became Segura's best answer to help them. There was no Plan B.

"I'll tell you right now, if I don't make it in baseball, I don't know what I'm going to do," said Segura. "Because I don't think I was going to go back to school.

"I was always taking care of them when I came here. Even in the minor league when you don't get too much money, I save as much as I can and help my family. They are a part of my life. I'm here for them. All the hard work that I do."

His family hasn't been able to see him play in person yet; only on TV. Segura said one day he will splurge on himself, too.

"There's going to be sometimes that I can buy nice clothes, buy a nice car - but right now I don't think that way," said Segura. "Right now it's trying to help my family. Trying to be safe. Trying to be smart with the money that I make."

He likes Milwaukee, calling the city safe. He said it is a dream come true to get to play with these Brewers. He hopes to play here for a long time but said he wasn't at all worried about signing the next contract. Working hard and helping the team, that's his focus.

But he sure has converted one teammate into a believer.

"He has so much energy and enthusiasm every day when he shows up," said Braun. "That's infectious. He's always optimistic, he's always in a good mood. It helps everything, the transition, the inevitable amount of adversity and failure that we face in playing this game. I really think it's for real and he has a chance to be really special in this league."

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